TiVo : Virgin - can I split my cable to another box?

[johnrob]

Hi,
I have 2 Tivo boxes in my house. The 2nd was fitted last week and the installer just split the cable at the first point in the house to run a new cable to this.

My question is I want to add a 3rd box of some description to the top floor of my house. An easy route would be to split the cable just before it enters the 2nd box and run the cable outside, up the wall and then into my top room.

I understand Virgin could do this quickly but a quick quote for a 3rd box seemed very expensive and the process 'seemed' simple when I looked at what the installer was doing.

Assuming that I can do this, the second part of my questions was what type of box to put up there. I had read somewhere that for around £130 I could put a [Mod Edit - box name removed] box up there. If I do, what channels could I receive (I currently subscribe to TV XL).

Any advice appreciated.

[BenMcr]

You cannot legally get channels via Virgin cable unless you get a Virgin set top box

Probably none, as you need a card in VM supplied box which is matched to your account.

Obtaining cable TV services by means other than the products advertised for sale by Virgin Media is a criminal offence under the Fraud Act 2006 - we do not permit such discussion of illegal activity at Cable Forum.

[Mr K]

Before you get sent to Alcatraz (!) you could try some sort of video sender and magic eye from one of the other boxes. This would be the cheapest and legal way of doing it. I was very fond of the RF output from my old pace box which used to feed upstairs, very good picture. Wonder why they don't an RF out on new boxes ?

I suspect the lack of RF-out is because that feature was designed to allow unencrypted analogue channels (the terrestrial five basically) to be passed through to elsewhere in the house. There is now nothing for an RF-out to pass through because there's no analogue service.

VM does not feed DVB-T signals of the type required by Freeview boxes and integrated TVs.

[johnrob]

Ok fair enough.

But can I split the cable as described and occasionally move one box upstairs if the kids have sleepover and want to watch something?

Is there a right and wrong point for splitting the cable?

[BenMcr]

If you want to do that the cable can theoretically be split at any point after it enters the house.

However the more splits are in the house and the longer the cable, the more you may end up with signal issues. These would be indentified and resolved by an engineer during a Virgin install, but not something you can easily pick up yourself

There's no physical reason why you can't put a splitter in, just be careful how you do it as a poor-quality job can muck up your service and possibly your neighbours' as well. If VM have to come out and rectify it, it will cost you handsomely.

[johnrob]

You know, I've been put off from trying this myself. Although cutting a cable, adding a connector and putting in a splitter is probably easy, the hassle of unforeseen problems probably means me paying more money to Virgin.

Ah well.

[Pauls9]

If you can split the cable at an existing connector, it'd be easier to revert to the previous configuration.